Students lose marks for using 'he': Universities penalise undergrads for 'offensive' gender phrase
211 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Essays will be marked down unless they use 'gender-sensitive language', students at a British university have been told.
Many universities are already advising students and staff not to use 'gender-offensive' terms such as 'he' or 'she' to describe people that could be either male or female.
And terms such as 'mankind', 'manpower' and 'manmade' are frowned upon by academics if used in essays.
But now the school of social science at the University of Hull has gone one step further by threatening to deduct marks from students for using such phrases.
A document sent to students reads: 'Language is important and highly symbolic.
'In your essay I thus expect you to be aware of the powerful and symbolic nature of language and use gender-sensitive formations.
'Failure to use gender-sensitive language will impact on your mark.'
[/QUOTE]
Sources
[URL="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/use-gender-sensitive-language-lose-marks-hull-university-students-told"]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/use-gender-sensitive-language-lose-marks-hull-university-students-told[/URL]
[URL="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4372224/Now-students-lose-marks-using-he.html"]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4372224/Now-students-lose-marks-using-he.html[/URL]
More moral busybodies forcing there world view on to others if you ask me.
I heard about this today from someone who used to be planning to go
"I'm fucking intersex and I couldn't give two fucks of a shit about gender neutral terms."
this is stupid.
[QUOTE]And terms such as 'mankind', 'manpower' and 'manmade' are frowned upon by academics if used in essays.[/QUOTE]
Reads like a joke but it is real and stuff like that seems to pop up more and more.
The fuck sort of bullshit is this?
Has April Fools Day extended past the first of the month and nobody told me?
[QUOTE=Mitsuma;52052248]Reads like a joke but it is real and stuff like that seems to pop up more and more.[/QUOTE]
Immediately thought of this:
[url]https://youtu.be/iGCgXqkwVQM?t=1m21s[/url]
[quote]terms such as 'he' or 'she' to describe people that could be either male or female. [/quote]
Sick of this shit, just pick one and get over it.
Looks like those students can't quote Neil Armstrong.
sorry we can't give you your degree on contemporary history but you assumed general Pinochet's gender :0(
Well now you can't study [I]His[/I]tory.
[QUOTE=Mitsuma;52052248]Reads like a joke but it is real and stuff like that seems to pop up more and more.[/QUOTE]
morals > logic in their eyes, no matter how flawed.
[QUOTE=cwook;52052256]Immediately thought of this:
[url]https://youtu.be/iGCgXqkwVQM?t=1m21s[/url]
Sick of this shit, just pick one and get over it.[/QUOTE]
[quote]“It is easy to dismiss or ridicule such attempts (as is often done) as ‘policing’ or ‘political correctness gone mad’. It is harder to have a proper discussion about the genuine need to raise awareness of the role language can play in reinforcing as well as contesting gender inequalities.[/quote]
I think its more like the "second sex" thing. Like "police man" has man in the name and while nobody explicitly means it as men only, it associates the men with being in the police, making a woman police officer something different from "the norm".
Language does play a role in these things, it helps reinforce stereotypes and propagate different attitudes between sexes. The language we use affects the the patterns we learn and thus influence how we behave and view others.
This is also only for 1 course at the uni, some religious studies thing - perhaps they're putting so much emphasis on it to have people think about it. Abramic religions (and the cultures based off of those religions + other cultures) are traditionally patriarchal - if you're going to think about religion then it helps to bear these things in mind, so it helps to bring attention to how (just as language influences culture) culture influenced the language.
Not saying its the right thing to do but they have a reason, its not just some lip service to political correctness and its not in this case about trans stuff.
People certainly shouldn't lose marks for including those words though, if their analysis is valid they should get the points.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;52052265]Looks like those students can't quote Neil Armstrong.[/QUOTE]
one small step for ... one giant leap for ...kind
if you can get onto an undergraduate course then you can write "they" in a fucking essay and not have your hands shrivel up and fall off.
Essays are already super strict on a lot of language aren't they? e.g. use of the first person. At least this choice is actually motivated by tolerance and kindness.
[QUOTE]manpower[/QUOTE]
What reasonable alternative exists? Especially if you're talking about war history
Here we go.
Avoiding words like mankind is incredibly standard in University writing essays. I have a book all about that encourages you to use gender neutral words in order to appear as objective as possible. Instead of mankind, pick better words such as humankind. Of course a lot of people here are exaggerating and thinking that you can't quote people anymore of they use words like "mankind", that's not how writing works.
As for the rest of the garbage such as using "he" and "she"?
[url]http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/dont-man-up-students-may-lose-marks-for-using-he-t356wkdrq[/url]
[quote]Universities are already advising staff and students not to use masculine pronouns such as “he”, “his” and “him” if the person referred to could be either male or female. [highlight]Instead, they are told to use “he or she”, “she/he” or “they”.[/highlight][/quote]
Again, incredibly standard but over-sensationalized. I encourage everyone to do their own research on the subject instead of relying on daily mail or a trash guardian article that doesn't even link to the source paper.
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;52052292]
[B]People certainly shouldn't lose marks for including those words though, if their analysis is valid they should get the points.[/B][/QUOTE]
Why? I lost marks at uni if i fucked up formatting, used poor grammar, wrote filler for 20 words and used unnecessary language or a bunch of other tiny little things you'd think were par for the course.
This isn't being done to "raise awareness", it's a tiny line that some writer obsessed with calling out "cultural marxism" in the telegraph is whinging about to try get one over on the sjw outpost of universities.
it used to be that "man" was a gender neutral phrase, although that eventually changed for whatever reason and now people are busy rewriting the older terms to fit in with the sensibilities of this particular century
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;52052313]it used to be that "man" was a gender neutral phrase, although that eventually changed for whatever reason and now people are busy rewriting the older terms to fit in with the sensibilities of this particular century[/QUOTE]
t's almost liketh language and t's meanings changes ov'r timeth
Another bizarre politicized language problem that only applies to the anglosphere.
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;52052304]Here we go.
[B]Avoiding words like mankind is incredibly standard in University writing essays.[/B] I have a book all about that encourages you to use gender neutral words in order to appear as objective as possible. Instead of mankind, pick better words such as humankind. Of course a lot of people here are exaggerating and thinking that you can't quote people anymore of they use words like "mankind", that's not how writing works.
As for the rest of the garbage such as using "he" and "she"?
[url]http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/dont-man-up-students-may-lose-marks-for-using-he-t356wkdrq[/url]
Again, incredibly standard but over-sensationalized. I encourage everyone to do their own research on the subject instead of relying on daily mail or a trash guardian article that doesn't even link to the source paper.[/QUOTE]
Just because it's standard doesn't makie it any less weird or unnecessary.
Might as well replace all pronouns with "xey" from now on, just to avoid triggering anyone again.
[quote]'gender-offensive' terms such as 'he' or 'she' to describe people that could be either male or female.[/quote]
I didn't realise calling somebody by a pronoun was "gender-offensive".
[QUOTE=DaWhatTheFox;52052350]Might as well replace all pronouns with "xey" from now on, just to avoid triggering anyone again.[/QUOTE]
Using "they" is pretty much the perfect solution.
Somebody with more knowledge explain this to me, you might not feel like you're a man or a woman, but bioligically you are one of the other unless you're 0.5% of people that fall between the gap, how can you unironically label yourself as "xi, xim, xer"?
How is gender a spectrum? I understand sexuality is one but how can you be "half man half woman"
This is cultural cancer and I hope it never spreads to this country.
[QUOTE=DaWhatTheFox;52052350]Might as well replace all pronouns with "xey" from now on, just to avoid triggering anyone again.[/QUOTE]
Very unfortunate that people are falling for a Rupert Murdoch paywall article and assuming that SJWs are at hand and it isn't just professionalism as a professional university [URL="https://web.archive.org/web/20140714235019/https://www2.stetson.edu/secure/history/hy10302/nongenderlang.html"]that started roughly around 1995.[/URL]
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;52052329]In general, it's completely unnecessary. Say whatever the fuck you want. Use any word you want. Snigger at people who try to apply scientific etiquette to real speech.
But it an official paper such as a university grade essay or a research paper, it's best to follow the rules of language if you want to look and be professional.
[/QUOTE]
Gendered pronouns are a part of the English language, they're not unprofessional, if anything, gender neutral pronouns are the new thing, and as far as I know, they are not in the rules of language yet.
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